what model) in Munich and drove along the Romantic Road stopping in
Ausburg, Donauworth (D1), Dinkelsbuhl (D2), and finally Rothenburg.
The guide books say give 2-3 days for the Romantic Road, we're giving
it just under 24 hours.
The trip was interesting because 1) we don't know the German road
signs and have never driven in Europe, 2) the car was manual, and
Kevin is rusty at best (rusty implies Kevin was at sometime good at
stick, which is not the case), and 3) we relied almost exclusively on
the GPS device (the Romantic Road is not always the route that the
device provides).
Immediately upon leaving the parking structure, we were in the middle
of Munich pedestrian, bike, and car traffic near the train & tram
central station. Kevin proceeded to kill the car at the first
intersection twice, missing the green light. The cars behind were
likely not pleased, but thankfully held their honks.
Once Kevin figured out that he was trying to start in 3rd, he was able
to choose the appropriate gear and to get the car moving. Brooke
requested that we exchange the car for an automatic, but Kevin
heroically declined and drove on.
We managed to leave Munich and get to Ausburg, all the way, however,
Kevin honed his starting and stopping skills in the construction
traffic. We parked in a structure in Ausburg and walked around town
for about two hours, including a stop for lunch. Ausburg is touristy,
but still quaint and the people were nice (a random old man stopped
and offered to help us when we were looking at a map on the street
corner).
Leaving Ausburg was a little difficult because it took Kevin 10
minutes to figure out how to put the car in reverse. Also, it took
about 20 minutes to actually find the Romantic Road and head north.
We finally managed to get to the next town, D1, but just drove by
because it was getting late.
Up until this point the Romantic Road wasn't very romantic. It was
comparable to driving from Milwaukee to Madison on 94, and it was
raining.
The road started improving between D1 and D2. We saw a random castle,
drove through a couple small cobblestone towns, rolling hills, etc.
We reached D2 and parked, strolled up the street for 15 minutes to
enjoy the sun that found its way back through the clouds. Things were
looking up, and we got back on the road and headed for our final
destination.
We didn't take the Romantic Road, the GPS took us to the Autobahn. We
hit 170 kph, not sure on the exact conversion, but we think 105 mph.
We were timid; the cars on the left were going closer to 150 mph.
Meanwhile, cars on the right were going 60 mph. It made for a fun and
fast 30 kilometer drive.
We reached Rothenburg at about 8 pm and checked into a nice B & B.
Since we have to leave early tomorrow to return the car in Frankfurt,
we headed out almost immediately to see what we could. This city is
basically in original 14th century style; it has old city walls,
gates, buildings, narrow cobblestone streets, the whole package. We
saw one last (hopefully) glockenspiel routine, and headed home.
Kind of a crazy day.
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